Leigh's Fiber Journal

Friday, June 26, 2009

Unveiling My Studio Set-Up

By Leigh

This is actually a duplicate post. I published almost the exact same thing on my homesteading blog because it's appropriate for both blogs, though for different reasons. That part of my life is certainly demanding most of my attention these days, but I am still a weaver and fiber person at heart.

After a lot of thought and some trial & error, I've finally settled on a set-up for my studio. This was formerly the "sun room," claimed as my studio on first sight.

The room is long and narrow, about 9.5 by 20 feet, and this presented some challenges. My loom takes up roughly 6 by 5.5 feet worth of floor space, so where to put it took some deliberation. I finally decided to start with it near the living room entrance, as the width of the double French doors afford a little room there.

Part of the problem is having enough floor space to walk around all sides of the loom. With this set-up I have 18 inches of space in back of the loom, and 20 inches on the left side. I'm going to work with this awhile, and if it's not adequate I'll make adjustments.

The long tube on the floor behind the loom is a reed holder. It was handy previously, but it's in the way now. I'll have to come up with another way to store my reeds.

To the right of the loom I left the floor open, and used a book shelf to define both studio and office space for myself without blocking the windows.

All of my spinning, dyeing, knitting, crochet, sewing, and design books are on those shelves, along with a few weaving books and a box or two of equipment. Behind the bookshelf .....

.... is just enough space for my desk and computer (currently both in Dan's addition.)

This will be my "office" area.

That's not a permanent home for my warping board, just a handy place to keep it. Eventually the closet will be replaced with more shelves.

My Sterilite stackable drawers (full of weaving yarns) are in front of the door which goes out to the screened in front porch. Though I like the idea of being able to use this door, I really don't need it. In the corner between the closet and my stackables is my tri-loom and raddle.

These shelves were left in the house. I was able to get a lot of my yarns out of boxes and stashed here. I really like being able to have at least some of my yarns visually handy.

The other little shelf unit contains most of my weaving books and is handy for my bobbin winder. Hopefully the space between this shelf and the loom will be adequate for entering and exiting the rest of the room.

The rest of my stash: weaving yarns, handspun yarns, commercial knitting yarns, and all my fleeces and other spinning fibers, (as well as my sewing machine, serger, and dye equipment) are in the spare room.

Being a "try it and see" sort of person, I figured that the only way to know how well this Hopefully I'll have something to show you on that front soon.

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Studio Progress

By Leigh

I have no progress to report on the socks, even though I got some very helpful suggestions to my problem. However, I made some headway in setting up my studio.

I decided that the first order of business would be to assemble my loom. Since it is large and the room is narrow, it's placement will determine where I put everything else.

When I was packing, I thought I was being very clever to set the loom handbook and set-up video aside, so as not to pack them away and be unable to find them when I needed them. Unfortunately, with all the moving mess, I don't have a clue as to where they are. *sigh*

Thursday, May 28, 2009

At Last, Actual Fiber Content :)

By Leigh

Remember these socks?

These are my Lucy Neatby Chequerboard Socks. This is the project I didn't pack away during moving, so that I would have at least some fiber in my hands to help me keep my sanity in the midst of the chaos of boxes everywhere and not being able to find anything.

I've enjoyed working on these socks, and they've been interesting because the short row garter stitch toe and heel are new for me. I didn't think I would care for them at first, but they match the thickness of the stranded knitting for the chequerboard body of the socks, and so work quite well.

But I've run into a problem. Not because of the pattern, but because of my foot.

The checks are stretched so tight before and after the heel, so as to pull them all out of shape. I'm not happy with how this looks and am not sure what to do about it.

The pattern calls for sizing the sock based on the ankle measurement. I admit I didn't do this because I have skinny ankles. I used the ball of my foot instead, and as you can see, the sock fits fine there. But the ball of my foot has a much smaller circumference than before and after my heel, hence the pulling.

What to do! The only thing I can think of is to somehow increase checks, but am not sure how to do that without distorting the checkerboard pattern. The logical place is at the bottom of the socks. Still, I'm stumped! Suggestions???

Posted 31 May 2009 at http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com

Related Posts:
Socks: One Pair Done & Another Begun
Fiber Forum Weekend

Monday, May 25, 2009

The State of My Studio

By Leigh

The move went well. It wore us out but everything is here. Now for the unpacking. *sigh* Below is the current state of my new studio after the move. (For the "before" shot, click here.)

This is all my yarns, fibers, fleeces, books, magazines, dyes, and equipment. The loom is in pieces off to the left of the photo. Now I've got to find homes for it all!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

My New Studio

By Leigh

This is actually a duplicate post. However, it is very on topic for this blog and besides, several of you have asked about it! This room was one of the things I loved when I first saw the house. It is a sun room, but I immediately envisioned it as my weaving and fiber studio.

There is a set of French doors off of the living room.

These lead to a sun room, which will become my studio.

This is the room which will become my weaving studio

After thoroughly cleaning the kitchen, I decided to tackle this room next. I figured that this way, I could move a little of my stash and equipment with each trip to the house.

Here is a 360 degree look at this room. The windows on the immediate left look toward the back of the house.

One thing you can see in the above photo is the beadboard ceiling. The walls however, are smooth.

The circle on the wall in the corner is a stove pipe flue cover, leading to a chimney outside the corner of this room. Obviously a wood or coal burning stove once stood in this corner. I say coal, because one of the outbuildings has a room with coal all over the floor.

As you can see, there are lots of windows and lots of natural light, making this the perfect choice for my weaving studio!

All it needs is a shade tree outside these windows

The front windows look out at the front yard and across the street.

I like that it exits to the screed porch too.

There is a closet in the corner. The other door leads out onto the screened in front porch. This is the only solid wall I have in this room.

Not much wall space though for books & stash

The wood floors are in fair shape, and will be much improved with sanding and refinishing.

This closet was added as an afterthought to this room. Possibly to make it a third bedroom. For my purposes, I think I would prefer shelving here. The interior of the closet offers a peek into what the room was like before it was painted.

The baseboards were originally unpainted. The closet floor is darker than the rest of the room. Possibly it was stained or painted at one time and had been sanded after the closet was added(???)

When I removed the switch plate to wash the walls, I discovered the original wood of the wall, which had been painted twice; once a darker green, and later a lighter green. These same colors were used in several other rooms as well.

The double-hung windows are likely original to the house.....

These operate with weights and pulleys; you can see the pulley rope on this one seems to be in fairly good condition. The ropes on some of the other windows are broken, and some of the windows are painted shut.

This room presents several challenges for me. The first is that there isn't much wall space, and I have a lot of stash, books, and equipment! DH says I could put shelving in front of the windows, but I am loathe to block any of that light.

Because of those windows however, and the orientation of the house (of which the front faces west), this room gets a lot of late afternoon sun. This in turn heats the room up considerably. While this will be welcome during winter months, it has the potential to be unbearable during the summer. I have this problem at our apartment, but I couldn't do anything about it! Now I can and I plan to plant a deciduous shade tree in the front yard this fall!

The last challenge is the size of the room. It measures 9' 3.5" by 19'11". It is the width I am concerned about, because of the size of my loom. My Glimakra Standard measures about six feet in width, so obviously the "getting around" room will be somewhat restricted. Depth-wise, my loom is about five and a half feet, not counting the bench. Even so, this is the perfect room for my studio!

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